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Creative Capitalism
Michael Kinsley (ed)
Simon & Schuster,
HK$229
At the 2008 World Economic Forum, Bill Gates, the world's most successful capitalist, made a surprising call for systemic change. It was time, he said, for the world's largest corporations to start working in the service of the world's poorest people. Gates named his concept 'creative capitalism'.
Michael Kinsley has now compiled an anthology examining the substance of Gates' vision, drawing on contributions from the world's leading financial minds.
The book's fascinating opening chapter takes the form of a free-wheeling interview with Gates and his new partner in philanthropy, Warren Buffett. The problem with existing capitalism, Buffett says, is its moral priorities: 'If a rich guy wants to take out a young gal, you're going to sell him Viagra and make money ... but it won't make research worthwhile for disease that is indigenous to the poorest parts of the world.'
The way to change all this, Gates argues, is to abandon the idea that charity should be the exclusive province of the government and non-profit sector.
Instead of simply giving away cash companies should donate a portion of their resources and manpower to developing innovative solutions for the world's forgotten problems: preventable disease, malnutrition and access to clean drinking water.  Companies that adopt his programme will  benefit from increased patronage from socially conscious consumers,  and gain an edge in recruiting top graduates, who are increasingly drawn to firms with a sense of  moral purpose.
Gates' blueprint is  given due scrutiny in this book, which takes the form of almost 100 bite-sized essays. Steven Landsburg, for example,  asks why major corporations should be entrusted with charity when they so frequently lobby for  tariffs and subsidies that keep developing economies down.
However, the deck is stacked  in favour of conservative critics, and the latter half of the anthology is dominated by contributors who reject creative capitalism as an aberration; they believe the sole purpose of business is to generate shareholder profits. It is unlikely most readers will have patience for these puritanical arguments about the saving power of the free market in the midst of the current financial crisis, even if the back-and-forth is between such luminaries as the Nobel Prize-winning economists Gary Becker and Vernon Smith.
In this respect Kinsley's volume is a victim of  poor timing. Arguments that today reek of hubris were unexceptional before governments began nationalising their financial industries. Convincing readers that these arguments remain reasonable (or even relevant) is a tough task.



Creative Capitalism